Posted by The WORD in Other Words by Fr Rodrigo Salac SVD (Philippines)
This is the first stanza of a song by Jose Mari Chan, “Constant Change:”
“We’re on the road, we move from place to place
And often times when we’re about to call it home
We’ll have to move along
Life is a constant change.”
Israel of old had to contend with changes in their lives as a people led by Yahweh. From being a tribal people in Egypt to becoming a nation in the desert of Sinai; from being a wandering country without a territory to becoming a superpower in the Middle East during the time of King David; from being exiled to foreign lands to being settled back again as a nation (foretold by Amos in our first reading today) – these were bitter-sweet ever changing situations Israel had to undergo with only one constant – Yahweh’s faithfulness.
Molting is a biological process of change among many living creatures in order to grow. Some shed their skin, some their shell, some shed their feathers, and even mammals including humans shed their milk teeth in favor of the permanent ones.
For Jesus, changes in the life of faith are inevitable. If he and his disciples were not fasting the way John the Baptist’s disciples and the Pharisees did, it was a sign of change. When the right time to change comes, everyone must adapt not in part but as a whole. Jesus’ illustration goes like this, “People do not pour new wine into old wine skins. If they do, the skins are ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine skins, and in that way both are preserved.”
Come to think of it, even God changed ways. He became man in Jesus. Let us be open to changes otherwise we will become extinct.
Source – Bible Diary 2020
